The Eric Lindros story in seven key Toronto area locations

Eric Lindros turns 50 on Feb. 28. Here are seven local spots he made his mark.

An image of Eric Lindros at a press conference in Toronto — Newly minted Maple Leaf Eric Lindros greets the media in Toronto on Aug. 11, 2005. (CP PHOTO/Frank Gunn)

The Eric Lindros story is pretty well known by this point. A physically gifted and supremely talented hockey player, he was born in London, Ont., and famously held out from both the OHL’s Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds and NHL’s Quebec Nordiques — which many fans never forgave him for. In the latter case, he was eventually traded and went on to pro stardom playing for the Philadelphia Flyers.

Lindros turns 50 on Feb. 28, 2023. And though he lost many game days to injury during his career, he traveled all over to win Memorial Cups, World Junior Championships, and Olympic medals.

But he also had some memorable sporting moments in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area, both after he moved to the area when he was young and later on.

Here are seven GTHA spots that play a role in the story of Lindros’s life and career.

St. Michael’s College School Arena

Lindros’s family moved to Toronto when he was 10 years old. Already an accomplished hockey player, he kept developing and building a reputation for skilled and hard-nosed play through atom, peewee, and minor peewee.

Then, at 15, he suited up for the St. Michael’s Buzzers of the Metro B Hockey League.

In his one season playing for St. Michael’s, Lindros scored 24 goals and 67 points in 37 games. He even managed to up his scoring in the playoffs: 23 goals and 48 points in 27 games in helping the team to the Metro B title.

1990 Highlights of Eric Lindros 1st Game in Oshawa | OHLArchive

Oshawa Civic Auditorium

Picked first overall in the OHL draft by Sault Ste. Marie, Lindros missed the start of the 1989–90 season during his holdout. But he hit the ground running upon arriving with the Oshawa Generals after a trade.

Lindros scored 216 points in 95 regular-season games in his three seasons in Oshawa — 2.3 per game, for those scoring at home — and lit the Civic Auditorium lamp on many an occasion.

But his most memorable Generals moment happened elsewhere in the GTHA.

Copps Coliseum (now FirstOntario Centre)

Before it became known as FirstOntario Centre, Copps Coliseum hosted the 1990 Memorial Cup — the pinnacle moment of Lindros’s first season in the OHL.

The big 17-year-old forward managed more than a goal per game in 17 total playoff games that year. He didn’t score in the four games the Generals played in the Memorial Cup, but he notched nine assists.

In the final, Oshawa came away with a 4–3 win over the Kitchener Rangers in double overtime. Some call it the greatest Memorial Cup ever.

Lindros moonlighting at the Skydome, circa 1990.

Skydome (now Rogers Centre)

Eric Lindros played baseball?

Well, sort of. He definitely played growing up, but never took his interest pro.

Still, though, in 1990 the hockey phenom was featured on a Score baseball card taking batting practice at the Skydome, shortly after the Blue Jays had moved in.

On the back of the card, he’s listed as a power-hitting third baseman who hit over .400 in high school. An anonymous scout is quoted as saying, “He has all the tools to make it big.”

An image of Eric Lindros with arms raised after scoring a goal against the New Jersey Devils — Lindros reacts after a Flyers goal during his time in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Chris Gardner, File)

Maple Leaf Gardens

Despite missing much time in his career — including the entirety of the 2000–01 season — Lindros managed to notch 865 points in 760 games.

In all all that time, he reached four goals in a game exactly once. And guess where he did it?

Where else? Toronto.

On March 19, 1997, Lindros scored four against his hometown team at Maple Leaf Gardens. He also added two assists, which means he factored into every goal in a 6–3 Flyers victory.

According to hockey scribe David Shoalts, who wrote up the story for the Globe and Mail the following day, even Leafs fans were cheering him by the end.

“Playing at home in front of your friends and family gives you a little extra jump,” Lindros told reporters after the game. “Maybe the hockey gods are with you because some shots you make will go in. It’s always fun to score, but it’s especially nice to do it at home.”

Air Canada Centre (now Scotiabank Arena)

Lindros never got to play for the Toronto Maple Leafs in the prime of his career. But that doesn’t mean he never got to play for the Leafs.

After the lockout of 2004–05, Lindros signed a free-agent deal with the Leafs on Aug. 11, 2005. He was 32 at the time, and about to play what would be his second-last season in the NHL.

In the 2005–06 campaign, he missed several games with a wrist injury. But he notched 22 points in the 33 games he suited up for, and notched a goal in Toronto’s home opener on Oct. 5.

This is why Eric Lindros is going to the Hockey Hall of Fame | Sportsnet

Hockey Hall of Fame

It took a while after his retirement from the game, but Lindros was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2016.

In the seven-minute speech he gave at the induction ceremony on Nov. 14 of that year, he had this to say about the place(s) he grew up:

“I was extremely fortunate to grow up in Ontario. I split time living in London, Toronto, and playing junior in Oshawa — cities where we are so blessed with strong schools. Cities where the word volunteerism really means something. Schools where science teachers double as school hockey coaches out of the love of sport.

“Some of my best memories of this time (are) when I skated the rinks of North Toronto and St. Mike’s — the kind of rinks that are found in so many cities. Rinks that are gathering points for our communities.”

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